Anthony Spizale is leaving Upperline to become chef at Manning's

Tonight is Anthony Spizale’s last night as chef at Upperline. He is leaving the restaurant after just over four months on the job to, as Upperline owner JoAnn Clevenger put it, pursue “the chance of a lifetime.”

Rusty Costanza, The Times-Picayune archiveChef Anthony Spizale is leaving the Upperline to become chef at Manning's, on Fulton Square.

Spizale declined to talk about his new job, and Clevenger said she didn’t know much in the way of specifics. A spokesperson for Harrah’s Hotel & Casino confirmed Spizale was hired as chef at Manning’s, the restaurant the gaming giant is opening in partnership with former Saints quarterback Archie Manning.

The restaurant is currently under construction on Fulton Square. The spokesperson declined to comment further, saying that Harrah’s would be releasing more details in September.

John Currence, the New Orleans-born chef-owner of City Grocery and other restaurants in Oxford, Miss., has been working with Harrah’s informally on developing a vision for the restaurant. “I didn’t have a title per se,” said the James Beard Award winner. Harrah’s “retained me on the advice of Archie and Cooper (Manning). I wrote menus and concept narratives for them.”

Currence said he didn’t know what role, if any, he would play in Manning’s moving forward.

Spizale’s departure from Upperline leaves the Uptown institution chef-less for the third time in a year. Ken Smith, who had worked in the restaurant’s kitchen for nearly 20 years, cooked his final meal July 31, 2010. He is currently studying to become a priest.

The tenure of Smith’s replacement, Nathan Winowich, was short. Then Spizale took over Upperline’s kitchen last March, after spending 11 years as executive chef of the Rib Room at the Omni Royal Orleans.

Clevenger said Brandon Blackwell, a chef currently on Upperline’s staff, will head the kitchen until she makes a new hire. She has enlisted Patrick Kearney, a seasoned professional chef, to aid her in the process. “He’s helping me to interview people and helping me to be a little bit more reflective,” Clevenger said.

Kearney is a former chef at, among other places, Peristyle, where his sister Anne Kearney won a James Beard Award before selling the restaurant in 2004.